Paul Trunoff writes: The loss of reputation of mainstream media has devalued the degree to which people accept or even read their articles/opinion pieces. Marketing has known for a long time that information from trusted individuals such as family and friends carries a lot more weight than from more remote or anonymous sources. The only answer as in all information is to think critically. It is perhaps interesting that the traditional polling organisations misread the election result so badly whereas Bela Stantic at the Big Data and Smart Analytics lab at Griffith University correctly predicted a coalition victory based on an analysis of tweets related to relevant policy matters.

Karen Churchill writes: This is an outrageous and shameful situation from a moral perspective. From an economic point of view it’s also ridiculously short sighted. The Andrews government is conducting a royal commission into mental health while ignoring the social housing crisis. There is ample research demonstrating that having a stable, affordable home is a precursor to people being able to improve their mental health. It’s clear that investing in social housing is key to getting the best ROI for government investment in mental health services (inadequate though this investment is at the moment). The moral imperative should be obvious to all. The Victorian government needs to really get on to this — fast!

Chris Gulland writes: On the face of it, competition is a good thing, and maybe the financial services industry will need to lift their game. The Liberals will have to tread very carefully, as there were far more skeletons in the closet with the banking royal commission than there was with the union royal commission. Speaking of both will we ever see any convictions?

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